Report: Russia gave Iraq info on U.S. war plan

updated 9:02 p.m. ET March 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - In his struggle to figure out and foil the American invasion plan as it was unfolding in late March and early April 2003, Saddam Hussein may have fielded a few tips from an old ally: the Russian government.

But it seems possible the Russians’ “help” created more confusion than clarity for the clueless Iraqi leader.

As described in a lengthy report released Friday at the Pentagon, Iraqi documents captured by U.S. troops say the Russians collected information about U.S. troop movements and battle plans at the outset of the invasion by tapping sources inside the American military. And they say the intelligence was passed to Saddam.

But was the information useful? In at least one case, the Pentagon report suggests it did more harm than good for Saddam. In fact it may have reinforced in Saddam’s mind a mistaken impression about the timing of the U.S. ground assault into Baghdad — an impression that permitted U.S. forces to preserve an element of surprise.

Referring to a Russian letter to Saddam that claimed the Russians had “sources” inside the U.S. Central Command, which planned and executed the invasion, the Pentagon report said, “Such external sources of information were only one of the fog-generators obscuring the minds of Iraq’s senior leadership.”

That letter was dated March 24, five days into the war.

Sources from inside Central Command
The unclassified Pentagon report does not assess the value or accuracy of the information Saddam got or offer details on Russia’s information pipeline. It cites captured Iraqi documents that say the Russians had “sources inside the American Central Command” and that intelligence was passed to Saddam through the Russian ambassador.

NBC News reported Friday that military investigators found no evidence of spies or moles at the headquarters. It is believed the Russians received their information via electronic eavesdropping, NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reported.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s U.N. mission in New York, said the allegations were false.

“To my mind, from my understanding it’s absolutely nonsense and it’s ridiculous,” she said, adding that the U.S. government had not shown Russia the evidence cited in the report. “Somebody wants to say something, and did — and there is no evidence to prove it,” she said.

The Iraqi documents leave unclear who may have been the sources at Central Command’s war-fighting headquarters, which is at Camp As Saliyah just outside Doha, the capital of Qatar. No Russians were authorized to be at the closely guarded base.

A classified version of the report, titled “Iraqi Perspectives Project,” is not being made public. It was assembled by U.S. Joint Forces Command, which reviewed a vast array of captured Iraqi documents and interviewed Iraqi political and military leaders, not including Saddam.

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